Holden frontera good, bad or other wise

The short stroke 3.2 is a very good donk,some in Jacks have covered 450000ks, the auto would be the most suspect item, and if its the same box as the Jack they are $3000 to replace. O and if you want fuel economy forget the auto. My wife had a auto Nullarbor at the same time I had a manual v6 Jack.The auto consistly returned 20 to 22l per 100 on short trips around town, using economy driving techniques I got it down to 18. My man returns consistly 15 to 16/100 around town and will get just below 12 on a trip. Sons older lighter 99se use to dip just below 11 on a trip if driven under 95.
I think you would be better of looking for a 3.2 man Jack, better clearance.
cheers Pete

G'day,
My friend owned one for 4 years & it went quite well in the sand out in the Wimmera.
It blew the head gasket last year so she offloaded it & bought a Suzuki Vitara instead.

Not many of them around. It wouldn't happen to be a green one in South Western Victoria would it?

Cheers
Stu

They should be a good unit if looked after - I understand they share a lot of the same running gear as the Jackaroo. I'd be surprised if there's much weight saving compared to a Jackaroo/Rodeo - most of the heavy bits are the same in the Frontera. The auto could be a bit thirsty, especially if driven by someone with a varying licence status.

I had a 3.2L V6 Jackaroo and sold it with 396,000km on it (only just starting to top up oil between 10,000km changes) and I never had to do anything major (I think the clutch and starter motor were replaced not long before I bought it at 226,000km) it was still in use a couple of years later. It was a great car, and I was sorry to see it go (I sold it prior to a temporary move overseas - if it wasn't so long in the tooth I'd have probably asked a family member to mind it until I got back). It was surprisingly capable off-road, though a bit low under the gearbox/transfer case - you had to be pretty careful going downhill but going uphill was fine as it tended to make the front sit higher. It served me well with a mix of driving including two decent outback trips (each in excess of 10,000km), was very comfortable to drive and travel in, and remarkably smooth, quiet and refined compared to many other vehicles of a similar age.

The only thing I'd caution with the Frontera is that (even more so than the Jackaroos), there really aren't many of them around so it can be difficult to get non-genuine parts if you should need them (and genuine parts can be quite pricey) - I sold my Jackaroo 7 years ago, I'd imagine parts availability would only get worse as time goes by. Having said that, if you're willing to try to source parts out of US, you may have more success as there are probably a few more of them around over there.